


whose worth's unknown

by therehavebeenworsenames



Series: Marriage of True Minds [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Adoption, Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual CC-1004 | Gree, Asexual Luminara Unduli, Cross-cultural, Cultural Differences, Culture Shock, F/M, Fictional Religion & Theology, Force Bond (Star Wars), Jedi, Jedi Culture, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Mirialan culture, Mirialans (Star Wars), Worldbuilding For Pleasure and Profit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23057902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therehavebeenworsenames/pseuds/therehavebeenworsenames
Summary: Luminara processing what happened inter-spaced with memories that won't stay quiet.
Relationships: Barriss Offee & Luminara Unduli, CC-1004 | Gree & Luminara Unduli, CC-1004 | Gree/Luminara Unduli, Cyslin Myr & Luminara Unduli
Series: Marriage of True Minds [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655536
Comments: 12
Kudos: 104





	whose worth's unknown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The series continues. This time with a short fic about Luminara's past and her dealing with the consequences of last night! These two are adorable and I will make content if I have to. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who read Gree's one-shot and left kudos! Hopefully you've returned for Luminara's side.
> 
> There are some discussions about Luminara's religion and choice to wear a head covering as well as another character's decision to leave the religion and not. The relation of both character's to their birth culture and its dominant religion and values will be a theme throughout Luminara's past. I will be drawing this from mine and my friends interactions with our religions and cultural heritages and our respective choices to stay/leave them. Neither choice will be shown to have more value than the other, but be equally valid choices when it comes with interacting with your own heritage.
> 
> If this makes you uncomfortable skip the "Before" sections. I just really wanted to explore Space Religion and how Jedi children adopted/rejected their birth cultures, okay?
> 
> On a lighter note, the title continues to come from the lovely Sonnet 116. I encourage you to read it.

**Before**

Luminara’s Master did not want her. It was a thought that would not leave her alone. 

Every time one of the younglings smiled at her brightly with congratulations, the knowledge was inside her, a heavy stone weighing her down. When her friends eagerly rushed to help her carry her things to the Padawan dormitory, it hid behind every bit of false cheer Luminara put on for them. Meditation only allowed her to wrap it, along with the hurt it caused, deep inside where no one could touch. She knew it was not correct. She should be facing her emotions as her créche-master had taught her. Luminara shuddered at the mere idea of not behaving as she knew a Jedi should. 

But if she was an unwanted Padawan, someone whose Master was being _ forced _ to take her, she was unsure if she ever could be a true knight. It left her confused and unmoored, the knowledge and the words she had heard spoken in the Council Chamber. She felt like a liar every time she smiled when she wanted to cry, but she wasn’t sure who she could speak to.

_ I did not agree to take_ _that girl_ _ simply to follow a tradition of a people I do not hold with_. The disdain in the words. The dismissal of both Luminara and the Mirialan.

Luminara had known since she was very small that she would become a Padawan one full lunar cycle after her seventeenth birthday. That was the age a Mirialan female was considered an adult. They would begin to cover their hair as Luminara had done and train in whichever art called to them. For a Mirialan girl given to the Order, for it was only girls given to the Order, then it was the day when whatever Mirialan Knight was available would take them. It was part of the Order’s agreement that only Mirialan would take Mirialan to preserve their teaching traditions even among the children they surrendered.

Luminara had been excited, assured of this eventuality and worked her hardest to score well and impress her future Master. Just because the choice was assured did not mean Luminara should not work hard or fail to be disciplined as all Jedi should. The Teaching Masters praised her for her quick mind and orderly spirit. Luminara had always felt her future Master would be happy to have a diligent, obedient student who took their people’s, both birth and adopted, traditions seriously.

Even when her créche-mates had eagerly sought to impress visiting Knights and were chosen and left, Luminara remained calm and consoled herself with the certainty of her future. She would be a little on the older side, but her and her Master would have this in common and she would know how to help Luminara.

She contented herself with training until even Weapon Master Sora Bulq complimented her Soresu form. She would work in tandem with the other Padawans and assist the younger créchelings with their beginning kata. She would spend her days learning the Order laws and traditions, determined that her late Padawanship and late arrival to the créche would not lead her to embarrass the Master who finally chose her. She would listen eagerly to Prie’s stories of adventures fighting raiders on distant planets, Quinlan’s unbelievable tales of action and mayhem, Obi-Wan’s exasperation as diplomatic journeys never went peacefully, and Bant’s excited rambling about techniques her Master was teaching her. She would daydream about what sort of lessons her Master would impart or the missions they would go on together.

And Luminara waited, wondering which of the Mirialan Masters would choose her. The elegant Master Elodia Gyre who worked as one of the liaisons to the Senate? The strict Master Hiraeth Yulla who led explorations to the outermost edges of the galaxy? The elderly Master Myrlinn Ryn who was said to be on par with Master Dooku as a duelist? There were a little over a hundred Miriralan Jedi and Luminara learned all their names from corps members to newly knighted to retired Masters. One of them would be her teacher she knew.

Luminara had not expected Cyslin Myr.

Master Myr was a Master who anyone would be lucky to have. It was well-known that she'd served as a Watchman on the Outer Rim for decades dealing with pirates and slavers until she returned to take on a Padawan and wondered the edges with them. She was the Master of the Niman and fighting in tandem with Force techniques. She had proven it by taking out the Jedi Killer Warlord on an Outer Rim world who'd been would-be conqueror. Her lineage alone was famous containing the newly risen Master of the Order Mace Windu and Master Depa Billaba, who was one of the youngest Council Members ever. When her Master, famed in her own right fell, her training had been finished by the legendary Master T'raa Saa in a rare break with tradition. She was supposed to be incredibly calm and wise having studied with Master Yaddle herself and spent many of her years as a Watchman meditating in Ancient Jedi Temples rediscovering their wisdom and stories to send back to the Order.

She was also one of the most non-traditional, in a Mirialan sense, Jedi currently active. Luminara had not had many opportunities to interact with the Master, but she knew some about her. She knew that Master Myr never appeared at any of the religious celebrations that the followers of the Covenant among them still kept. She knew that Master Myr was known for eating food that was against the Covenant. She had seen her walk around uncovered, though she did have her Deed Marking.

Master Myr had never muttered an unkind word to her, or any of the others, in her memory, but she could not forget the words spoken in the Chamber. Luminara was one of the more traditional followers of Covenant and this had always been respected though occasionally met with curiosity when she explained the details of the faith to her créche-mates.

Never had Luminara worried that it would be held _against_ her. Even when she had received some gentle cautions about being too rigid for a Jedi, they're had never been the implication that her beliefs were wrong. Only that she must remain open-minded to others faiths as well.

Sitting in her Master's apartments waiting for their first meeting since she'd heard what she had outside the Council Chamber, her stomach roiled. The fear of it had made her hesitate to put on her headdress for the first time since she'd started wearing it. The item had been an object, of maybe not pride, but happiness and she'd enjoyed the meditative process of putting it on each morning. It had been a stubborn sort of determination that had her putting it on, feeling a quick strand of rebellion and disappointment in herself at the thought of her Master's disapproval making her falter for even a moment.

Waiting, she was still determined, but the anxiety of the meeting made her regret eating breakfast no matter how light.

The sound of the door opening was the only warning she got before Master Myr was walking in skin gleaming from exertion and hair damp, clearly fresh from the training salle. Her hair was dark like Luminara's own, cut to her chin, and bound at one side. Most of it was slicked down from sweat, but bits of it was drying and sticking up at different angles. Luminara found herself stiff and sitting perfectly still and poised at the edge of her seat, eyes downcast but watching from underneath her lashes. It was reaction she hadn't had since she'd arrived at the Temple and been welcomed into the créche. She felt six-years-old with her father standing over his disappointing daughter.

Master Myr's expression, which had been sharp, softened, but when she spoke there was something undeniably awkward about the interaction.

"Hello Padawan," she greeted, her voice holding the soft lilt of a Coruscant accent. "I will take a quick shower and change into something more appropriate."

She was removing her outer robes and hanging them on stand nearby and, after a moment, laid her lightsaber on a two pronged one in the middle of small altar at the entrance of the room. Under the altar was a set of closed drawers that Master Myr reached into and withdrew a small item from. When she turned Luminara got a clear look at it. It was a lacquered box, wrapped closed with a golden rope and decorated with diamond shapes in white to contrast the dark wood. Master Myr paused, not quite hesitating, before sitting it on top of the short caf table by Luminara.

It was a very traditional Mirialan design.

Luminara couldn't repress the confused frown at the sight.

Master Myr stood beside her, stiff and her hands suspended in the air between them. Finally her hands clenched and she exhaled, dark eyes lingering over Luminara with an emotion she couldn't identify and was too wary to try reaching into the fledgling bond that had been formed when Luminara had initially agreed to their partnership.

"I assume you have been taught to mix the ink."

It wasn't really a question, but Luminara nodded, heart beating fast and hopeful that maybe, _maybe_, she would at least received the traditional start to any Mirialan Padawanship.

"Good," Master Myr said, and straightened angling towards the hall leading away from the living room. "This is the set my Master passed onto me. Mix the ink and prepare the brushes and needle. I will start when I am cleaned off."

Luminara nodded, weak and light headed with relief.

Master Myr seemed pleased, but still mostly blank faced. She nodded once before turning away and heading to the refresher. Luminara slumped forward with a rush of air from her lungs, hands reaching out to gently trace the designs with her fingers.

Her Master didn't want her, may have been forced to take her, and clearly was uncomfortable with the traditions Luminara valued and Luminara herself. But she had agreed to this despite it. Maybe Luminara could prove herself? Make it so her Master would be proud to have Luminara despite everything she stood for and the unwilling nature of their partnership. Resolve strengthening, Luminara began to untie the rope memorizing the pattern so she could replace it afterwards. She found herself muttering the Dawn Prayers as she prepared the inks, carefully arranging everything in the order she had been practicing since she was thirteen.

She would, she vowed then and there, make it so her Master would not regret taking Luminara. She would convince her Master that Luminara would be worth her time.

\- 

**Now**

Gree was fascinated by her hair. Luminara could feel it flickering along the edge of his consciousness, clear and easy as it was with Barriss. Which shouldn't be possible without a Force Bond, but clearly it was. The formally small awareness had become a full presence in her mind that had been all she needed to understand something had changed last night. It had only been confirmed when she saw the marriage mark. Gree, inquisitive and careful Gree, dancing along the edge of her mind, so impossibly perfectly _there_.

And he thought her beautiful. It wasn't an obvious thought and there was nothing possessive or claiming about it. It was at the edge of every quiet murmur in his mind and it wrapped around Luminara leaving her oddly flushed at his admiration. Gree was unabashedly honest in his thoughts as he was in speech and it made his presence comfortable in a way she wouldn't have expected.

Luminara gave herself a quick mental slap at that. It would not do to find comfort in this _accident_. She needed to focus on freeing Gree from this entanglement and not presuming even further on him.

Gree looked up with a frown, she could feel it, but he was immediately distracted by the movement of her twisting her hair back to wrap. She felt him pull himself away and start dressing hurriedly, despite his desire to look and having her permission.

Gree was her husband and a true friend besides. She was not opposed to having him see her.

Luminara considered the thought and breathed through it, knowing the feeling behind it would need to be considered more carefully during meditation. She finished wrapping her hair and eased her headdress on, draping the cloth. It settled her, making her feel complete and confident as it always had.

She looked behind her in time to find Gree turning to her, holding his helmet, his _face_, in his hands. Her palm _burned_ where a green strip mirrored the one he had carefully painted.

He seemed unsure for a moment, but then he looked at her and calmed.

"I'll gather the men and make sure they are prepared to leave. Is our plan still to spend one more day in the Capital with the last of the treaty signings?"

Luminara considered the question. It was true the situation was unexpected to say the least, but it should not directly affect the treaty negotiations. She and Gree would certainly need to handle the consequences of the behavior, but that was a personal and not military matter.

"The mission parameters will stay the same," Luminara said finally and the added. "I will update the Council on the situation at hand. If they believe that it calls for a change we will act accordingly."

Gree nodded, relaxing with the familiarity of the discussion. Luminara hesitated but continued. 

"I will also find the status of our marriage. Legally speaking," she said feeling a strange strum of emotion through her at the word. "The Shoddith are known for their swiftness in such matters, but we may be able to stop it from processing completely. Otherwise we may need the Council's help to intercede if it has been registered on Coruscant."

Luminara did not blush like a child at the idea of having to request help filing an _annulment _of all things with the Jedi Council, but it was a close thing.

"Of course, sir," Gree said and then. "Will you be needing me for it?"

Luminara wanted to say yes. The idea of having Gree beside her was tempting. She knew he would provide a supportive presence as she faced the Council and admitted what she'd done. While not strictly against the Code, as she'd explained to Gree last night it was exceedingly rare that the only Jedi, who'd remained a Jedi, in living memory was Ki-Adi-Mundi. It was somewhat unspoken that to marry was to announce, subtly, an intention to leave the Order.

Luminara had no intention of doing so and though she may not be excommunicated for the offense, but there was also the power imbalance between them to consider.

Gree, she noticed, was leaning forward frowning and she saw his hand lift for a moment, as if to reach out to her, but stopped. He was reacting to her emotions, she realized with a start. Her breath caught. Did that mean it was a full Force Bond between them? It was exceedingly rare for one to develop between sentients unintentionally and even more so when one was not Force-sensitive. How would the bond even feel for him? It was such a natural part of Luminara, or relationships between Jedi and other Force-sensitives, she was unsure how it would even feel to have one suddenly forced upon you.

A hand interrupted her musings, resting gently on her shoulder. Gree was closer looking over her face, eyebrows drawn together.

"General?" he asked, brown eyes concerned, warm.

Luminara forced herself to relax. These questions could all be addressed later. There was no need to stress herself or her commander out with her anxiousness. Almost without thinking she sent a wave of calm out to him as she would have Barriss. He shifted, surprise flickering across his face and a hand unconsciously settled on his chest. There was a quiet moment and he frowned, seeming to concentrate.

She suddenly felt the mental equivalent of a soft _poke_.

"Oh," she said, jumping a little. So Gree _could_ react along the bond. It was clearly unpracticed, but it was more controlled than she would expect from someone who had never touched such a bond.

Gree grinned, a mix of sheepish and pleased. "I thought it was you, General, but I suppose that confirms it."

"Yes," she said absently feeling the thin, but steady connection and then, feeling strangely mischievous poked back like a crécheling playing with a friend.

This time Gree jumped. Luminara smiled allowing herself a moment to forget the implications of the bond and enjoy the surprise that turned into a slight awe. The awe lingered, but a mirroring flash of humor was followed by quick returning jab. Luminara swatted back, feeling playful, but then considered, because she could not stop herself from thinking for long, and paused.

"I hope it is not too uncomfortable for you," Luminara said. "It is similar to a Master-Padawan Teaching Bond. I am uncertain as to what triggered the manifestation, but I promise not be untoward. I know such connections can feel invasive to those inexperienced in them, especially as it was unintentional."

"It feels odd," Gree said, looking thoughtful. He didn't poke her this time, instead when he concentrated, fist pressing tightly to his chest, she felt a wave of trust being sent clumsily to her. It contained what were likely some unintentional additions, snippets of watching her in command and a hint of her voice saying his name.

"It isn't uncomfortable though General. It's the opposite. It's like, like a small star."

There was something reverent in the way Gree's fist relaxed, splaying over his heart like he was holding something close. Luminara felt emotion twisting inside her, stealing her breathe. It was the emotion from earlier she still couldn't quite place, mixed in though were veins of gratitude and her own appreciation. And perhaps she also felt a little flattered by the comparison as well.

"Still," Luminara said, forcing herself back to steadiness and leaving the emotion aside. She would need a very long meditation when she could find a moment for herself. "I shall do my utmost to respect you boundaries and give you privacy within the sanctity of your own mind."

"Of course, General," Gree said as if he had never for a moment doubted her.

And she knew he had not. She had felt his trust. She would make certain she was worthy of it.


End file.
